Fri. 4/10: COVID-19 Daily Update
LOCAL 5 PROMOTES SAFE HOTELS, SAFE HAWAII PROGRAM TO KEEP HAWAII HOTELS OPEN WHILE PRIORITIZING PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY
We released our “Safe Hotels, Safe Hawaii” guidelines today and proposed to our hotel employers that they adopt these guidelines immediately to ensure the health and safety of hotel guests, hotel workers, and the broader public amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read the full guidelines here. Watch this video from Local 5 President Gemma Weinstein.
LOCAL 5 ON FACEBOOK LIVE
Every week, Local 5 will feature our members to share how they are keeping themselves busy in the safety of their homes.
Today, Local 5 member Aina Mei Iglesias, a front desk worker at Hilton DoubleTree Alana and an award-winning powerlifter, shared a quick workout routine and encouraged the community to donate to the Local 5 Hardship Fund to help workers who have been temporarily laid off. You can watch the full workout routine here.
Watch our next Facebook Live video next Friday at 5pm.
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
Hawaii officials cannot say when state unemployment checks will include extra $600 federal payments (Star Advertiser, April 10, 2020)
The addition to this story already reported on yesterday is that the DLIR is saying they are “already getting calls from our business community saying, ‘Hey, you guys are being too lax with the ability to pay people because we don’t want to get an experience rating increase and then have to pay for this on the back end.”
The business community doesn’t want working class people who got laid off to get financial help they are entitled to because businesses don’t want to possibly pay higher unemployment insurance tax later.
3 employees, a patient at Maui Memorial test positive for COVID-19 as cluster grows (Hawaii News Now, April 10, 2020)
There are 19 cases stemming from Maui Memorial Medical Center. The report claims that Kaiser didn’t report that one of the new deaths from corona reported today was one of its patients who died on Tuesday April 7th, but it wasn’t reported to the DOH until today (Friday, April 10).
Health officials say the outbreak started in mid-March. In the wake of the cluster being made public, the hospital has stepped up its safety protocols. As reported earlier, the state Health Director Bruce Anderson said the hospital hadn’t been adhering to infection control principles, like requiring visitors to undergo temperature checks and wear masks upon entering the building, and the facility didn’t provide staff with enough personal protective equipment.
Local 5 represents hospitality and healthcare workers. This is why it is important to implement proper health & safety procedures immediately—in our healthcare facilities and in our hotels that may be used as temporary quarantine shelters.
Just days after the Hotels for Heroes program launched, first responders and medical workers are calling it confusing and too restrictive (Hawaii News Now, April 10, 2020)
Hawaii News Now says first responders including nurses and firefighters are reporting confusion or denial of services with Hotel for Heroes program. There is lots of confusion about the program with some saying all rooms have been taken already, that Kaiser didn’t sign up in time so its workers couldn’t use it, and that responders who are positive or in self quarantine are not eligible for the hotel stays. The article notes that even Mayor Caldwell framed the hotels rooms as quarantine facilities, when the hotel rooms were meant for uninfected responders to sleep somewhere so that they wouldn’t risk infecting their households.
More drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites planned statewide (Hawaii News Now, April 10, 2020)
This Saturday, April 11, one test site will be on Oahu at Waipio Peninsula Soccer complex from 8am to 12pm. There will be no Kakaako testing site this time. On Hawaii Island, testing will be at Hilo Civic Center’s Hoolulu Complex from 8am to 3pm. For more information, call Premier Medical Group Hawaii at (808) 304-8816 or (808) 367-6020.
Hawaii’s Senior Care Facilities Scramble To Prepare For COVID-19 Spread (Civil Beat, April 10, 2020)
The article discusses the different types of facilities for senior care and how each type faces its own challenges in finding PPE, adhering to medical best practices and regulations. Aside from larger skilled nursing facilities, smaller community assisted living facilities may not be as well equipped to deal with COVID in their patient populations.
Hawaii, Kauai counties shut down vacation rentals to halt coronavirus (Pacific Business News, 4/10/20)
Vacation rentals are not considered essential services like hotels and motels and will be ordered shut down by Mayors on Hawaii and Kauai
World: Cases: Cases: 1.7M (+100k). Deaths: 102.7k (+7k). Recovered: 376K (+22k)
USA: Cases: 501k(+36k). Deaths: 18.7k (+2.1k). Recovered:
Hawaii: Cases: 465(+23). Deaths: 8 (+2). Hospitalized: 43 (+1). Recovered: 284 (+33)
